Fantasy Bowl Playoffs: 00 Baltimore Ravens vs 78 Pittsburgh Steelers

00 Baltimore Ravens vs 78 Pittsburgh Steelers

Welcome to Three Rivers Stadium for this second round matchup between the 2000 Ravens and the 1978 Steelers.  After knocking off the legendary Green Bay Packers at Lambeau field, the Ravens will face off against a familiar team, but not familiar faces.  It won't be Roethlisberger, Parker and Ward out there today.  Instead, it'll be Bradshaw, Harris and Swann suiting up for the Steelers.  Both teams come in with dominating championship caliber defenses, so we should see a hard hitting, low scoring affair.

Ravens key to victory - Don't waste opportunities.  The Raven offense shouldn't expect to score a lot of TD's against this defense, so kick field goals and make turnovers count.

Steelers key to victory - Attack the Ravens' offense.  Force throws, rip at the football, force turnovers.  Don't make the offense have to drive the length of the field against this defense to score points.

Weather:  35 degrees, light rain, 10 mph wind

1st Half: 

The Ravens start off with the ball on their own 31.  Dilfer tries to get off to a fast start, but overthrows Shannon Sharpe.  Jamal Lewis gets stuffed on 2nd and 3rd down and the Ravens go three and out.  The Ravens defense comes out strong too forcing the Steelers offense to go three and out.  Dilfer starts off this drive the way he tried to start the last one but this time connects with Sharpe for a 20 yard gain to the PIT 36.  The drive doesn't get any further and coach Billick thinks that a 53 yarder is too far and punts, pinning the Steelers down at their own 10.

On the 2nd play from scrimmage, Bradshaw finds Lynn Swann for a 10 yard gain near the sidelines.  Coach Billick challenges the catch saying Swann didn't have control and two feet in bounds.  After reviewing the play, the call is upheld and the Ravens lose a timeout and apparently some confidence.  Bradshaw hits Stallworth for a 13 yard gain and then goes deep to Stallworth this time, who out leaps Duane Starks for a 34 yard reception down to the BAL 27.  The Steelers drive to the 18, but decide to kick the field goal on 4th and 1.  Gerela lines up and boots in the 35 yarder.  8 plays, 67 yards, 5:21 drive

Ravens 0 - Steelers 3

With the Terrible Towels waving, the Ravens pick up a first down, but fail to get past the 50 and punt the Steelers down to their own 28.  The Steelers fight their way to midfield and punt the Ravens in deep.  The Ravens convert a couple of first downs, but stall at their own 48 and punt the Steelers inside their own 20.  The field position battle is on. 

After a couple short screen passes to Harris and then Grossman, Bradshaw goes deep again and finds Lynn Swann for a 31 yard gain down to the BAL 31.  The Steelers call timeout with 1:46 left in the half.  On the next play though, the Steelers are flagged for holding pushing them out of field goal range.  Bradshaw takes a shot at the end zone, but is nearly picked off by former Steeler, Rod Woodson.  They fail to get back into range and punt the Ravens down to their 8 yard line. 

The Ravens attempt to run out the clock, but there's a breakdown in the Steelers defense and Priest Holmes sweeps left for a 44 yard gain.  The Ravens are in business.  Dilfer connects with Ayanbadejo for a 14 yard gain to the PIT 34 and Baltimore calls timeout with 51 second left.  The Ravens are in field goal range but want to get it a little deeper.  Dilfer tries for his bread and butter play to Sharpe, but its picked off by Tony Dungy and returned all the way back to the PIT 42.

The Steelers fail to move into field goal range as time expires

2nd Half: 

The second half starts with the Steelers getting the ball and the defensive battle continues.  Both teams go three and out with the Steelers getting pinned deep in their own end.  The Steelers catch the Ravens in a blitz and Harris picks up 45 yards on a draw play to the BAL 39.  The crowd is going insane!  Bradshaw completes a few passes down to the Ravens 10.  The Steelers run another draw play to Harris and he busts into the end zone for the touchdown!  Roy Gerela however misses the extra point.   6 plays, 84 yards, 3:35 drive

Ravens 0 - Steelers 9

Finally with a sense of urgency, the Ravens offense starts to get it going with a kick return to the BAL 42.  Dilfer finds Ismail for an 11 yard gain and another pass to Jamal Lewis for 14 yards.   The march down to the PIT 24 when the Steelers run a safety blitz and Dilfer is sacked by Donnie Shell for a 6 yard loss.  Dilfer next pass is incomplete, setting up a 47 yard field goal for Matt Stover and he nails it.  The Ravens finally get on the board and are once again one score away from taking the lead.  8 plays, 28 yards, 4:57 drive

Ravens 3 - Steelers 9

The Ravens defense gets extremely aggressive and get to Bradshaw often and knock him around quite a bit.  The Steelers don't move the ball far and punt.  The Ravens however fail to take advantage of their momentum and punt back.    Pittsburgh makes a couple first downs and punts the Ravens to their 26.  On Dilfer's first pass of the drive he is picked off by Jack Lambert and he runs it back to the BAL 11. 

Sensing the game may get out of reach if a TD is scored, the Ravens dig in their heels and hold them to a 23 yard field goal.    3 plays, 5 yard, 1:25 drive

Ravens 3 - Steelers 12

The wheels start to comes off for Baltimore as they muff the kick off and end up starting on their own 9.  Dilfer comes out firing as there is only 6:41 left, but doesn't connect on any of them and have to punt.  The Steelers get great field position at the BAL 37 and come away with a 30 yard field goal.  5 plays, 24 yards, 3:27 drive

Ravens 3 - Steelers 15

With just over 2 minutes left, Dilfer throws a swing pass over to Lewis who runs for 30 yards into Steelers territory.  But the drive is stopped after Dilfer gets picked off again, this time by Donnie Shell.  The Steelers run out the clock and head to the Camp Conference championship game.

It was the defensive struggle we expected.  Lots of field goals, lots of punts and only one TD.  The three turnovers killed the Ravens.  This Steelers defense just swarmed Dilfer and really stuffed the running game.  Anytime the Ravens got anything going on offense, the defense just snuffed it out with a big play via sack or interception. The Steeler offense had a few big plays themselves, which led to most of their points.  The 78 Steelers will now host the winner of the 07 Patriots versus 89 49ers game tomorrow.